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Hurricane Dolly will test levees along Texas coast, experts warn
Hurricane Dolly strengthened on Wednesday as it churned toward southern Texas, and was expected to lash low-lying areas on the US-Mexico border with torrential rains when it comes ashore later in the day.
- Reuters
- Published: 22:47 July 23, 2008
Houston: Hurricane Dolly strengthened on Wednesday as it churned toward southern Texas, and was expected to lash low-lying areas on the US-Mexico border with torrential rains when it comes ashore later in the day.
Dolly, the second hurricane of 2008 Atlantic storm season, gathered strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, with sustained winds reaching nearly 140km/h.
Dolly is currently a Category 1 hurricane - the weakest on the rating scale - but could strengthen to Category 2 with winds over 154km/h before it hits land, the US National Hurricane Center said.
A category one storm is the lowest rating in the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale.
The NHC has issued a hurricane warning for the southern Texas coast as far north as Corpus Christi.
At 7am EDT (1100GMT), Dolly was about 90km east of the border town of Brownsville, Texas, where it was due to come ashore by mid-day. The storm was moving at about 13km/h.
Ahead of schedule
The storm's predicted landfall and strength were unlikely to jeopardise sensitive offshore drilling rigs and production platforms in the US and Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico. US crude oil prices hit 6-month lows on Tuesday and fell further yesterday to below $126 (Dh462) a barrel.
The NHC has said Dolly could dump 38cm of rain on South Texas and northeastern Mexico in the coming days.
Officials in low-lying South Texas counties worried that torrential rains could overcome levees holding back the Rio Grande River and cause flooding.
In Cameron County near the Mexico border, officials expect up to 51cm of rain. "That's going to do a number on our county," said Johnny Cavazos, the county's emergency management coordinator.
Levees holding back the Rio Grande could be breached if Dolly drives a surge of water from the river's mouth inland, Cavazos said. The levees held under similar conditions during Hurricane Beulah in 1967, but they have "seriously deteriorated" since then, he said.
The United States has largely escaped the past two Atlantic hurricane seasons, with just one hurricane - Humberto in November 2007 - making landfall on its coasts.
But it was pummeled in 2004 and 2005, when a series of powerful hurricanes, including the catastrophic Katrina, ravaged Florida and the US Gulf Coast. The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season is already a month ahead of schedule. On average, the fourth tropical storm of the six-month season does not occur until August 29. Dolly, this year's fourth, formed on July 20.
Disaster declaration
"I definitely think that the activity we have seen so far this year is a harbinger of things to come," said Jeff Masters, co-founder of meteorological website The Weatherunderground.
In Texas, Governor Rick Perry put 1,200 National Guard troops on alert and issued a disaster declaration for 14 low-lying counties in the southern part of the state, although no mandatory evacuations were ordered.
Some 250 buses stood by in the inland city of San Antonio to evacuate coastal residents if needed.
In the Mexican city of Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, authorities evacuated 23,000 people and urged residents to seek temporary shelter.
The hurricane has forced thousands to flee as US oil rigs put staff ashore and the US Navy sheltered aircraft. "Some additional increase in strength is expected and Dolly could approach category two intensity when it reaches the coastline later today," the NHC said. "It's not going to be a picnic on Padre Island," NHC director Bill Read told CNN, referring to the long, narrow barrier island along the Texas coast that is dotted with resort communities.
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